Hadrian. One represents a bireme; the other, a tri We have no similar means of testing what I have supposed to be the internal arrangement; and I shall, therefore, examine some of the passages in antient authors which most directly bear on this point; and to assist my readers in this examination, I annex a diagram (see p. 222.) drawn to a scale, of the transverse section of a trireme; the oars on one side dipping into the water, the oars on the other side lifted out of it. It will be observed that I have represented the oars of the different tiers as dipping into the water at the same distance from the side of the vessel, and the middle oar, that pulled by the zygite, to be the longest. This appears to have been the case from several passages in antient authors. Galen says, speaking of the human hand, that, although the fingers are of unequal length; yet, when the bouanga has an outrigger upon which rowers are seated, it may be called a double vessel. The main body of the vessel is a bireme, with a tier of oars pulled from a projecting bamboo gallery. The corcore of the Moluccas is, however, a regular bireme, not depending on an outrigger for stability (in which the upper or outer oars are pulled from a projecting gallery). Freycinet, Voyage, ii. 11. pl. 37. hand is shut, their extremities come together, "just as in triremes the ends of the oars extend to an equal dis a, oar of thalamite seated on deck. b, oar of zygite seated on stool on deck. c, oar of thranite seated on stool on gangway. tance, although they are not all of equal length, but in that case also the middle ones are longest."* It is only necessary to look at the diagram to see that the comparison is by no means a far-fetched one Aristotle, also, observes, that, "the middle finger, like the middle oar, is the longest."† The longest oars, in the above diagram, are of the length indicated in the Attic tables. I am aware that Professor Böckh, who is high authority in matters of Grecian antiquity, differs from the explanation I have given of the passages from Aristotle and Galen, and supposes that the "middle oars," which these * Καθαπερ οιμαι καν ταις τριηρεσι τα πειρατα των κωπων εις ισον εξικνείται, τοι γ' ουκ ισων ἁπασων ουσων, και γαρ ουν κάκει τας μεσας μεγιστας.-Galen, De Usu Partium Corporis Humani, lib. i. cap. 24. † Και ὁ μεσος μακρος, ὥσπερ κωπη μεσόνεως.-De Partibus Animalium, iv. 10. authors said were the longest, were in the middle of the vessel with respect to length, and not with respect to height, and supports this construction of the passages by an entry in one of the Attic tables (ii. 56. Urkunde, p. 288.), from which it appears that out of forty-eight damaged thranitic oars, ten might serve as zygitic, implying that the thranitic oars were at least as long as the zygitic. It may, indeed, be true that the oars in the centre of the vessel were longer than those near the bow and stern, and we may perhaps thus explain the passage in the Attic tables; for it might well be that the longer of the thranitic oars might serve for the shorter of the zygitic; but the difference of adjoining oars of the same rank must have been imperceptible, and could scarcely have suggested the comparison of Galen. Eustathius tells us that the thalamites rowed under the thranites.* Julius Pollux tells us that the part of the ship where the thalamites rowed, was called the thalamus i.e. sleeping-place. A glance at the foregoing diagram will explain the propriety of the appellation; it is the only part of deck sheltered from the weather. He also tells us that the middle of the ship was called zyga, or the beams, where zygites sat; and that the seat round the gangways or platform (xaraσтpapa ‡) was called thranos, where the thranites sat. * Όθεν μεταφορικως και θαλαμιται και θαλαμακες ερεται οἱ ὑπο τους πρα νιτας. † Καλοιτο δ' αν και θαλαμος, οὗ οἱ θαλαμιοι ερετουσι τα δε μεσα της νεως ζυγα, οὗ οἱ ζυγιοι καθηνται· το δε περι το καταστρωμα θρανος, οἱ οἱ πρανιται.Julius Pollux, lib. i. 87. 66 "Kатασтрwμа, tabulatum quo navis superiore ex parte striata est, quodque nautas discurrentes aut milites propugnantes sustinet."-Scapula. I shall now consider whether this mode of arrangement could be extended beyond three tiers of oars. The antients, we know, had quinqueremes, or galleys with five banks of oars. Of these we have no graphical representations, and are left still more to conjecture than in the case of triremes. The quinquereme must, of course, have been larger than the trireme. A vessel twice the size of another, if the proportions are the same, is one-fourth larger in every dimension. If the height of the gangway of the one is 5 feet above the water, the gangway of the other will be 6 feet 3 inches. If the deck remains at the same height as before above the water, the additional height of the gangway will allow space for an additional tier of oars under the gangways, the oar-ports of which must be placed in the same position relatively to the oar-ports of the zygites, as the latter are relatively to the oar-ports of the thalamites. This third rank of rowers must be placed nearer the middle of the vessel than the zygites, either standing on the deck or sitting on seats more elevated than those of the zygites. But the oars of this third rank of rowers would interfere externally with the oars of the thranites, if these remained as before. This may be remedied by increasing the length of the oars of the thranites, or by making the gangway project further from the side of the vessel, so that the oars of the rowers on the gangways may always dip into the sea, outside of the oars of those who row below the gangways. * This being done, * Lucan notices the greater distance from the ship's side at which the oars struck the water in a sexireme : it will be evident that one or even two additional ranks of rowers may be placed on the gangways, without interfering with the other rowers, and we thus obtain a quinquereme or a sexireme. This arrangement of the oars of a quinquereme is shown in the annexed figure, which is drawn to a scale. The longest oar in the case here represented is 20 feet, a length quite within the power of one man.* I do not consider it necessary to inquire how far the mode of adding to the number of ranks can be carried. Meibomius †, and after him Witsen‡, have arranged the alternate ranks nearer and farther from the side, as I have done; but, instead of placing the upper rower, when there are three ranks, either upon a projecting gangway or nearest the middle of the ship, they place him next "Celsior at cunctis Bruti prætoria puppis Phars. iii. 533. * The sweeps used in decked boats are sometimes 22 feet long, and are pulled by one man. † Meibomii de Fabrica Triremium, Amst. 1671, p. 1. Aeloude en Hedendaegsche Scheeps-bouw en bestier. door N. Witsen, fol. Amst. 1671. Appendix, p. 4. |